The Storyboard Designer editor is the central location for all design activities for your application. It provides a visual representation of all of the screens of the application and allows designers to edit the screen content and get immediate feedback about the look and feel of the application.
The default editing mode is to display and edit the entire application, showing all screens and their composited layers together.
When navigating the editor using selection, there is a breadcrumb at the top that shows the selected object’s hierarchy in the model. Entries in the breadcrumb can be clicked on to update the selection in the editor. By default, clicking on a group or table will select the group or table object. Double clicking on a group or table will enable the selection of the underlying controls. Double clicking on the object again will return to the default selection behaviour.
If instead of looking at all of the screens of an application together, you want to focus on editing and working with one particular screen, you can right-click in the editor and select > , which opens up a new editor window with that screen's content shown.
If you want to edit the layer contents only, independent of the screens to which they are bound, you can right-click in the editor and select > which opens up a new editor with all of the selected layers shown individually. If changes are made to a layer in this mode, the change will be reflected in all of the screens that reference the changed layer.
The right-hand side of the editor contains a fly-out palette toolbar that provides the basic visual design elements for the application; screens, layers, and controls. These can be selected and dropped onto the editor to start building up the application.
Additional editing functionality is available through the right-click menu while in the editor, as well as from the main menu. This is where you will find functions to manipulate control size, alignment, and z-order/front-back placement, as well as the creation of new controls, layers, and screens.
Content can be moved within its container by selecting one or more items and then using the arrow keys to move the item. By default, the movement is in 10 pixel increments when using the keyboard, but if the SHIFT key is held down while using the arrows the content will move one pixel at a time in the desired direction.
There are a number of keyboard shortcuts for common operations these can be displayed on-screen by selecting > from the main menu.
The GDE editor has the ability to choose a Freeform Layout, this allows the user to manually position their screens in the editor rather than using a grid layout. Each Screen working set has a unique freeform layout that is preserved when the GDE editor is saved.
Here's an example of a Freeform Layout, screens are positioned in an custom manner:
Here's another example of a Freeform layout where screens are visually organized into groups:
The workbench toolbar contains a button to toggle between State Layout and Freeform Layout. Another way to do so is with the context menu in the GDE editor, View>Layout>Freeform Layout.
In addition to the editing options available right click menu, the toolbar provides functionality that is context sensitive to the editor being used. When a Designer file is being edited (and the editor area has focus) the toolbar provides short cuts to several common operations.
- Storyboard Simulator
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This will export the Designer file being edited to a Storyboard Engine file and simulates it using the host based Storyboard Engine configuration.
- Zoom Display
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This controls the current zoom level of the display. There are two ways to zoom in an out with the scroll wheel.
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CTRL+MouseScroll (Windows/Linux) or COMMAND+MouseScroll (Mac) using a wheel mouse or a touchpad will zoom the editor in/out while keeping the selected model object centered on the screen.
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CTRL+SHIFT+MouseScroll (Windows/Linux) or COMMAND+SHIFT+MouseScroll (Mac) using a wheel mouse or touchpad will zoom the editor in/out on the area at the center of the editor.
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- Align and Resize
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These toolbar actions provide a convenient alternative to manual alignment by aligning the selected controls automatically with one another. When a single control is selected the alignment is performed relative to the screen. When multiple controls are selected, the alignment is performed relative to each other.
- New Model Elements
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These toolbar actions provide an alternative to the palette for the quick construction of screens, layers and controls.
- Control Outline
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These toolbar actions control how the control content is displayed within the editing environment. By enabling the control outline, a border will be drawn around controls and layers. By enabling the wireframe mode, no control content will be drawn, but an outline of the controls is drawn. These modes can be used to optimize the application layout to avoid unnecessary damage and redraw operations.
- Wireframe
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The wireframe mode turns off all of the render extension drawing within the controls and shows only an outline of the controls, layers, and screens similar to what is provided by the Control Outline functionality.
This functionality is useful to minimize the amount of control overlap that occurs so as to prevent excessive redraw damage areas.
- Editor Layout
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Toggle between State Layout and Freeform Layout in the Editor. See (Editor Freeform Layout)
In addition to the standard model editing functionality, some render extensions have direct edit functionality. To enable the direct edit on a control with one of these render extensions, the user needs to do a slow double click on the control.
- 3D Model
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When the direct edit mode is activated, a set of xyz axes will appear in the bottom left corner of the control. At that point the user can use their mouse to move the model. Holding the shift key allows the user to rotate the model using their mouse. As well, holding either the x, y, or z key isolates that axis when either translating or rotating the model. When the user is finished editing the model, they just need to click anywhere outside of the control to end the direct edit.
- 2D Polygon Editing
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When direct edit is activated, the user can create and edit a polygon on the screen using hotkey toggles. Hold 'shift' and click within the control bounds to create new vertices (ideally, 3 vertices are needed to have a sufficiently visible polygon). Hold 'control' and click on a particular vertex to delete it from the polygon. Hold 'alt + shift' and click near an edge to create a new vertex splitting that particular edge. Vertices can be moved by simple click and drag. Exit quick edit by moving the mouse out of the control bounds.
- Images with Custom Rotation Points
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When an Image render extension has a custom rotation point, direct edit is available to change the location of the point with a drag and drop operation. This is further discussed in the section Image Rotation in Working with Images.